Happy Easter.
We’ve had a secular Easter (not without a fair bit of internal (and still unresolved) wrangling on my part as I am only recently a declared ex-Catholic). Still, it felt right to celebrate the coming of spring and the rush of new life with eggs and flowers. 
The children enjoyed hunting for eggs in the garden. We dyed hard boiled eggs and I made hot cross buns. Which then prompted Ed to ask the children:
What do you get when you pour boiling water down a rabbit hole?
Hot cross bunnies!
Daniel found it mildly amusing. Helena was merely confused.
As I dribbled crosses in the buns and reflected on the irony of it, since we were not at church and could hardly be more mishmoshy heathen, Daniel said to me, “So Easter is when Jesus came back to life, right?”
“That’s right,” I agreed and felt a certain amount of relief that he was not completely unaware of the Easter story, despite my unbelievable laxness in the old spirituality department.
“And he died on Friday,” Daniel continued.
“Yes,” I said. “On a cross. Which is why we’re putting crosses on the buns.” (I used to pour milk on my cereal the same way — make a cross first, as if blessing the flakes, then pour the rest on.)
Daniel hmmed for a moment. “But if he died, why is it GOOD Friday?”
This is so what I get for not taking my children to Sunday School. I launched into a quasi-theological rumination on how something that looked not so good might turn out to be the right thing in the end and so would be good (like pulling out a splinter, say). I used the analogy of Aslan, since we have just finished reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Daniel said he got it. Then, he said he didn’t get it after all. Right.
The hot cross buns were pretty good, though.
Mmmmmffff.
I am an ex-Episcopalian, but that’s really just taking a sabbatical in our faith. But I went to a Jesuit college. So, not only do I need to philosophically ponder Daniel’s question, I also need to know why it’s Maundy Thursday.
What’s MAUNDY, anyway?
Your children could do worse than getting their religion from stories of Narnia.
Also, sometimes it’s O.K. to tell them I don’t know.
I think I asked this same question when I was small, and got no good answer at all. It’s a good question! Why IS it Good Friday? Good Sunday, I could see…
My ten-year-old and I had some Easter-based discussions this weekend, also. I think it’s safe to say he didn’t get it, either.
We’ll never really get it. It’s the asking and the trying to answer that matters.
You can MAKE hot cross buns? I can only buy them! (except of course I can’t any more because the shops have stopped selling them now).
Not only can I not make hot cross buns, but I am completely unresolved about how to address theological/spiritual issues with Ellie.